William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was a renowned
English poet, playwright, and actor
born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon.
His birthday is most commonly
celebrated on 23 April (see When was
Shakespeare born), which is also
believed to be the date he died on in
1616.Shakespeare was a prolific writer
during the Elizabethan and Jacobean
ages of British theatre (sometimes
called the English Renaissance or the
Early Modern Period). Shakespeare’s
plays are perhaps his most enduring
legacy, but they are not the only things
he wrote. Shakespeare’s poems also
remain popular to this day.
Shakespeare's work includes 38 plays,
2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a
variety of other poems. No original
manuscripts of Shakespeare's plays are
known to exist today. It is actually
thanks to a group of actors from
Shakespeare's company that we have
about half of the plays at all. They
collected them for publication after
Shakespeare died, preserving the
plays. These writings were brought
together in what is known as the First
Folio ('Folio' refers to the size of the
paper used). It contained 36 of his
plays and none of his poetry.
Geoffrey Chaucer
Poet Geoffrey Chaucer was born circa
1340 in London, England. In 1357 he
became a public servant to Countess
Elizabeth of Ulster and continued in
that capacity with the British court
throughout his lifetime. The
Canterbury Tales became his best
known and most acclaimed work. He
died October 25, 1400 in London,
England, and was the first to be buried
in Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s
Corner.In 1357, Chaucer became a
public servant to Countess Elizabeth of
Ulster, the Duke of Clarence’s wife, for
which he was paid a small stipend—
enough to pay for his food and
clothing. In 1359, the teenage Chaucer
went off to fight in the Hundred Years’
War in France, and at Rethel he was
captured for ransom. Thanks to
Chaucer’s royal connections, King
Edward III helped pay his ransom. After
Chaucer’s release, he joined the Royal
Service, traveling throughout France,
Spain and Italy on diplomatic missions
throughout the early to mid-1360s. For
his services, King Edward granted
Chaucer a pension of 20 marks.
 less than one year of school, however,
Edmund spenser
he was forced to leave the university
was an English poet best known for The when Allan refused to pay Poe’s
Faerie Queene, an epic poem and gambling debts.
fantastical allegory celebrating
the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He GEORGE ELIOT
is recognized as one of the premier
was an English novelist, poet,
craftsmen of nascent Modern English
journalist, translator, and one of the
verse, and is often considered one of leading writers of the Victorian era.
the greatest poets in the English
She wrote seven novels,
language. Little is certainly known
including Adam Bede (1859), The Mill
about Spenser. He was related to a on the Floss (1860), Silas
noble Midlands family of Spencer,
Marner (1861), Romola (1862–
whose fortunes had been made
63), Middlemarch (1871–72),
through sheep raising. His own and Daniel Deronda (1876), most of
immediate family was not wealthy. He
which are set in provincial England and
was entered as a “poor boy” in the known for
Merchant Taylors’ grammar school,
their realism and psychological insight.
where he would have studied mainly
Latin, with some Hebrew, Greek, and Although female authors were
music. published under their own names
during her lifetime, she wanted to
EDGAR ALLAN POE escape the stereotype of women's
writing being limited to lighthearted
On January 19, 1809, Edgar Allan Poe
romances. She also wanted to have her
was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
fiction judged separately from her
Poe’s father and mother, both
already extensive and widely known
professional actors, died before the
work as an editor and critic. Another
poet was three years old, and John and
factor in her use of a pen name may
Frances Allan raised him as a foster
have been a desire to shield her private
child in Richmond, Virginia. John Allan,
life from public scrutiny, thus avoiding
a prosperous tobacco exporter, sent
the scandal that would have arisen
Poe to the best boarding schools and
because of her relationship with the
later to the University of Virginia,
married George Henry Lewes.
where Poe excelled academically. After
 GEORGE ELIOT EDMUND SPENSER

GEOFFREY CHAUCER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

EDGAR ALLAN POE